Microsoft forecast on Wednesday a record $30 billion in capital spending for the current fiscal first quarter, after booming sales in its Azure cloud computing business showcased the growing returns on its massive bets on artificial intelligence.

Microsoft Corp. said it will spend more than $30 billion in the current quarter to build out the data centers powering its artificial intelligence services.Investors, applauding accelerating growth in the company’s cloud-computing unit,

Microsoft plans to invest more than $30 billion in capital spending next quarter —a new high — to meet surging AI and cloud demand.